The Gospel Spirit: Loretta Lynn (Remastered)

Album Review

Between 1965 and 1972, Loretta Lynn released three LPs of inspirational music, Hymns (1965), Who Says God Is Dead! (1968), and God Bless America Again (1972), and each of them made the country charts. This compilation selects highlights from those albums. Working with her usual producer, Owen Bradley, Lynn takes a typically straightforward approach to the material, which consists mostly of standards early on, with some more contemporary songs added in toward the end. She is usually accompanied by backup vocal groups, although only "The Old Rugged Cross" and "Harp With Golden Wings" credit the Jordanaires. On "In the Sweet Bye and Bye," she seems to be singing a harmony duet with herself through the miracle of overdubbing. The most interesting tracks come in the final six from God Bless America Again, among them the up-tempo "I Feel Like Traveling On"; "Gethsemane," which borrows its melody from "St. James Infirmary"; and "If God Is Dead (Who's This Living in My Soul)," a song to answer that famous Time magazine cover of the '60s, "Is God Dead?" Lynn, of course, would reply with a resounding "no!"